Antivirus for osx

Hi !

Recently my anti virus had some problem causing kernel panics. As you can guess it was Eset CS Pro so i unwillingly uninstalled it.

But now that the new stable release of the software has come out i am in two minds about installing it again !

There is this sentence which says osx does not need an anti virus and they are all advertising and don't do any good but i think an anti virus is must be running on my OSX 10.9.4.

Now the question is that is it really necessary ? as I surf the internet a lot i'm really worried about viruses and junk files.

Two things:

1. Please give this thread a read:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/security-awareness/308337-best-antivirus-mac.html

2. Thread moved to better sub-forum (Security Awareness forum).

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Two things:

1. Please give this thread a read:

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/security-awareness/308337-best-antivirus-mac.html

2. Thread moved to better sub-forum (Security Awareness forum).

- Nick

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thanks for your answer. I've read that thread but I've just read that again.

you will actually slow your computer down

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this sentence of you is really true. i can really feel the difference between my macbook running anti-virus and not running anti-virus.

But after all is an antivirus really a waste of time and money ? there are lots of companies developing a new version of their product for mac are all their activity nonsense ?

Thanks for paying attention

Pooya said:

But after all is an antivirus really a waste of time and money ?

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In the current Mac virus threat environment…the short answer…yes!

Pooya said:

there are lots of companies developing a new version of their product for mac are all their activity nonsense ?

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Short answer (IMHO)..yes. They're mostly preying on consumer fears. Especially preying on the fears of former Windows users switching to a Mac…who know that Anti-Virus IS needed on Windows systems.

Since 2001 when OS X was cost released (13 years now)…antivirus on Mac's really hasn't been necessary. The Mac virus threat environment really hasn't changed since 2001.

Sure…there will always be folks who will say…"Hey…nothing wrong with some protection" (just in case). On the surface this sounds like good advice. Except that these same folks could have been running AV software for 13 years (unnecessarily). And as you mentioned…many AV apps use enough system resources to cause noticeable performance issues.

With 13 years of no reason to run AV software on Mac's…and with no real reason to believe that the virus threat environment has changed on a Mac…I will continue to not run AV on my Mac's.

When Mac's start having virus issues…I certainly will get inline for an AV app. This could be tomorrow…a year from now…or 5 years from now. But not today.

- Nick

p.s. The best "middle of the road" advice I've seen is (from some of our excellent Mac-Forums members)…is to run ClamXav:

ClamXav

Run it in "as needed" mode. Meaning don't have it running 100% of the time. Just manually run a scan periodically.

pigoo3 said:

In the current Mac virus threat environment…the short answer…yes!



Short answer (IMHO)..yes. They're mostly preying on consumer fears. Especially preying on the fears of former Windows users switching to a Mac…who know that Anti-Virus IS needed on Windows systems.
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sorry for the spam. i can't vote up as it says spread some then try again !

i really appreciate your help dear pigoo3. You answered all my questions about macbook protection.

You're welcome.

- Nick